Travis Kasperbauer bought a new alarm clock last week.

He had been dumped before, more times than he'd like to admit, but for some reason this one was different. For some reason, this breakup inspired him to switch things up a bit. So after spending all of art history class listing aspects of his life that desperately needed improvement, he went to Target and dropped a whopping $14.89 on a new digital clock with a built-in AM/FM radio.

Suddenly Travis became a morning person.

Shortly after plugging in his new clock, he discovered the WTF radio station. He actually looked forward to waking up every morning just to see which bizarre song they would play.

This morning they played Mr. Blue Sky by the Electric Light Orchestra, which Travis found pretty funny because he hadn't seen anything but overcast skies in a week or so, and today was no different. Nonetheless, he hummed the song all the way down 12 flights of stairs and out the front door of Castle Apts. and almost didn't notice all of the commotion on Poplar St. Seeing the stalled bus and the crowd forming around it, he approached the scene. While walking, it occurred to him that normally he would have avoided it completely. "That's the old Travis I guess," he said to himself.

"I beg your pardon?" Asked an old man standing next to him.

"Huh? Oh, no, I was just talking to myself. Sorry," Travis said.

"Don't be sorry, boy. Talking to yourself periodically is good for your health. How do you think I lived to be so old?" The man laughed.

"Good to know... So what's going on here?" He asked the man.

"The bus stalled out, he said. Now everybody's rushing around yelling at their cell phones. It's ridiculous. You know, that's the problem with people now-a-days. They're always rushing. Rushing to get to work, rushing to get home, just rushing through life like it's not long enough for them. So ungrateful. I'll tell you what, kid, life is too damn short. Don't waste it on rushing."

Travis stood there, speechless. All he could do was nod in agreement.

"Yes sir," he said.

"I think I'll go take a nap," said the old man. And with that, he walked away.

Travis thought about what the man said. In fact, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that only the loud, obnoxious argument between a woman and the bus driver could snap him out of his trance-like state.

Well, I think that's my cue to leave, Travis thought. He didn't have any classes that day, and he certainly had no friends to be with, so he resolved to going back to his apartment and listening to WTF until Missy came home.

This time they were playing a Gorillaz song. Travis found it very calming. He liked it so much that he actually started painting. This was novel because it had been years since Travis had painted just for the sake of painting. It had also been years since he had been that pleased with his own art. This was the final product: